The Streptosporangiaceae family are a subset of a large and complex group of Gram-positive bacteria collectively known as actinomycetes. Over the past few decades these organisms, which are abundant in soil, have generated significant commercial and scientific interest as a result of the large number of therapeutically useful compounds, particularly antibiotics, produced as secondary metabolites. The intensive search for strains able to produce new antibiotics has led to the identification of hundreds of new species.
A representative strain of actinomycetes, belonging to the Pseudonocardiaceae family, Amycolatopsis sp. MI481-42F4 produces Amythiamicin A to D, which show antibacterial activity (see J. Antibiotics, 47 (1994), 668-674 and 1136-1153, JP1998059997(A), JP1997124503(A), JP1995215989(A), JP1994263784(A), JP1993310766(A), JP10059997A2(A), JP09124503A2(A)).
A problem of significant dimension is the increasing incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria such as the more virulent, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among clinical isolates found worldwide. As with vancomycin resistant organisms, many MRSA strains are resistant to most of the known antibiotics, but MRSA strains have remained sensitive to vancomycin. However, in view of the increasing reports of vancomycin resistant clinical isolates and growing problem of bacterial resistance, there is an urgent need for new molecular entities effective against the emerging and currently problematic Gram-positive organisms.
This growing multidrug resistance has recently rekindled interest in the search for new structural classes of antibiotics that inhibit or kill these bacteria. New antibiotics have been isolated from fungi and bacteria.
Although many biologically active compounds have been identified from bacteria, there remains the need to obtain novel compounds with enhanced properties. Current methods of obtaining such compounds include screening of natural isolates and chemical modification of existing compounds, both of which are costly and time consuming.
Thus, there exists a considerable need to obtain pharmaceutically active compounds in a cost-effective manner while producing high yield. The present invention solves these problems by providing a novel strain from the Streptosporangiaceae family capable of producing a potent new therapeutic compound and methods to generate such novel compounds